The Mermaid: A Retelling
by TheScarlettSmiles
Summary: When Ariel saved Eric, she thought she'd found everything she'd ever wanted. Someone she could give up everything for and still be safe in the end. When it turns out he isn't what she thought, but the Captain of the Guard is, she has to choose between what she wants and what she thought she wanted. The wrong choice could kill her... And everyone she loves.


**Author's Note: This story is a mix of the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson and the lovely Disney movie. I do not own some of these characters, you can recognize them from the movie, so do not sue me, I come in peace. throughout the line there might be lemons, thus the rating, so don't read if you are underage. Happy readings! **

Chapter 1

Halia held Ariel up to the sky, watching the tight red curls that danced around her daughter's head as the breeze dried their skin. The small gills underneath small reddened ears fluttered closed as her natural instinct took over to breathe through her nostrils.

She laughed as her child's emerald tail flicked the air as if trying to swim into the sky. The soft scales that covered Ariel's tail and a small section of her forearm had darkened only the slightest bit since her birth, which had only been a few weeks ago. The scales in question were a vibrant green, some blue in the right light, but all had the same gold sheen that made her tail shine in the sun.

A sun that was supposed to be seen from below the water's surface.

Halia swept her gaze over the span of the ocean before smiling at her giggling baby. She was holding her high in the air, well over the surface, letting her child feel the cool morning air of the cove.

"My little mermaid!" She brought her baby back down to the water, laughing as Ariel tried once again to swim into the air, struggling against Halia's hold. Halia flicked her tail with one strong motion, letting them sink into the water, her own red locks surrounding them both, before spinning and letting Ariel go to float by herself. She watched carefully as Ariel's strong little tail swept to and fro, trying her hardest to move.

"Come on, you can do it," Halia urged gently, "you can't swim through the air, but you can swim here, you've got it!" She held her daughters small hand in her own, leading her through a school of fish as Ariel started to get her fins about her.

She was a natural swimmer, Halia led them through the rich vegetation, being careful to avoid eels and the camouflage fish. She showed her the starfish that were wallowing on the sand the stingrays that swam over there heads, the small sharks that weren't bigger than Ariel herself, they were more playful than anything. Despite the richness of the world around her, Ariel more than once tugged on her mothers hand and tried to float to the surface. Halia's bit her lip as she recognized the need. She herself had had it for many years, before she'd merely started to give up and swim to the surface.

As she and Ariel emerged, she did her scan of the surface again on reflex. She'd been to the surface so many times that it was automatic. They were near a small island, nothing large enough to attract the legged creatures, but enough that it was a possible threat, but this was information she already knew. This was Halia's favorite spot.

Ariel was tugging on her hand again, Halia held on, "Ariel, you're just starting out, I can't risk letting you run off on your own, especially up here." She scooped up Ariel in quick move, than swam them to the large boulder that sat close to the island, it was in the perfect spot. She set little wriggling Ariel up on the hard surface and used her arms to haul herself up onto the rock. She brought her tail up and wrapped it around them both, making a barrier so that Ariel wouldn't get away from her. Ariel's little pink face was scrunched up as she picked up a small conch shell and wandered her fingers over its surface. Halia ran her fingers through Ariel's hair and untangled it as Ariel idly played with the shells that had gathered on the rocks.

"I come here often when I want to think," she talked, her voice and the soothing sounds of the ocean the only thing that could be heard. "Ha, this is actually where I met your father," she cringed, "he would be angry that I brought you up here. You weren't actually supposed to see the surface until you were eighteen. He dislikes the surface, so even though you can't yet speak, never reveal that you've come up here. In fact, I won't surface anymore either!"

The declaration was out of her lips before she could stop it. Her hands stilled. Her eyes widened. Tears actually stung the back of her eyes, shocking her. Mermaids don't cry over trivial things.

Could she actually give up the surface for eighteen years? If not, how was she going to explain her absences to Ariel or Poseidon. She knew Poseidon knew of her affection for the upper world, but she didn't think he knew of how much time she really spent up on this very rock. She resumed fixing Ariel's hair, but now her tail was flicking at the water nervously.

"Well, I'll promise to do my best. I also promise to tell you how I met your father someday, but not until you're older, so you can at least imagine why I choose to go through with it... But, I will tell you that I wasn't even able to wait until my eighteenth birthday, to visit the surface, I first visited when I was thirteen. It was glorious, but I was so afraid of my family finding out. Many mermaids dislike this world..." Her voice trailed off, she looked down and seen Ariel's eyes shutter closed as she yawned. Halia grinned, "am I putting you to sleep?" Ariel was clutching the little shell to her chest, as she leaned back into Halia's side. "Go ahead and sleep, my little mermaid."

Halia leaned back on one of her arms, with the other wrapped around Ariel, she started to hum. The sound was gentle and flowed through her throat, before long she added words, keeping her tone soft, Ariel was relaxed and sleeping before the words even left her mouth.

It was the song that her mother had sang to her and the song her grandmother had sang to her daughter. Every lineage had a song that followed them down the line, and when two new families came together, the songs mixed and became even more enchanting. A mermaid's song had the power to defend, to protect and if the legend was true it could lure mortal men to do dangerous things. Voices had to be protected, because if the wrong person heard it, bad things could happen, but that was merely the rumors of the mer people. That mortals couldn't control themselves when they heard their music.

Halia had never known anyone or had been in a situation where her voice lured a mortal, so she sang to Ariel. It was meant just for Ariel.

She was so careful when she came the surface, she was constantly watching for danger, always careful, she had never been in danger herself though she surfaced almost daily. She always swam away if there was even a sign of the legged beings that almost looked like her. So, for the first time, she didn't see on the other side of the island the danger that she was luring.

* * *

"Turn the prow to starboard!"

"Captain?"

"Do as I say." Captain Stephen Branch glanced back at Laurent. "You are new to the crew, so I'll let you down gently. Do not question my authority, I want my wishes executed and done promptly. I am soon to be Captain of the Guard to the King, I am so far above you that it's a miracle that we can inhale the same air."

Laurent's arms shook as he checked his anger and pushed at the oars, turning the whale boat, the way he had indicated. "You'll be a good edition, boy, if you can control that temper." The boy, Laurent, didn't look at him and continued rowing with a stony expression.

Gibbs and the three other crew members wanted to question the order to turn, but didn't know how to ask. Stephen ignored them and turned back to the open ocean. In truth, even he himself didn't know why he'd asked them to turn, they had been headed straight for the small island that would hopefully house some food for the crew, but for some reason, he'd felt this tingling the back of his neck. He massaged the muscle in question. He was turning the boat so that they could go around the island, to the other side, but for what he wasn't sure of was... Why?

The tingling was getting stronger, Stephen ground his teeth as he tried to focus on the feeling. It was a feeling of power, of seduction, luring him to something that would change him.

"Captain, do you feel-" it was Gibbs voice that disrupted the sensation.

"Quiet!" He barked, desperate to find the source of the lure. They were next to the island now, the men's oars tangling in the weeds that grew from the water, but they continued coasting alongside it, rounding it slowly.

Than he heard it.

Stephen leaned forward, as the voice penetrated his ears, submerging him in a fog of allusion. He heard the cries of sated women, the joyous cries of winning a battle, the love he felt for the sea all at once. And over all that a feeling of happiness was the need to possess, to take, to have whatever it was that was making him feel this- this power. The sun beat down on his back as he heard one of his men groan, he turned to find Mic hunched over and clutching his ears. The other men in other states from need to even arousal. "What is it, man?"

"...ah... It's a... Mermaid!"

Stephen scoffed, "what are you about?" But even he had to admit, it certainly wasn't the men in the boat who was making his trousers strain, it was the sound, the voice.

"We have to turn around now!" Mic let go of his ears and grabbed an oar, pushing it on the island, making the boat shake dangerously.

"Shut up! All of you! Let go of the oar or die, Mic!" Stephen took out his pistol, he'd never been a short trigger, but he felt as if he could shoot Mic without a second thought anything to get his hands on the thing that was making him feel like this. He aimed straight at Mic's ugly face with a sneer, "don't you dare turn this boat around! Now, steer all of you... I want to see what's on the other side of this island." He couldn't believe his own words he'd never been that fast to anger before. What the hell was going on?

Everyone stilled as they stared down the pistol. They grabbed their oars one at a time, and slowly started with a quicker pace. But something Mic had said wandered back through Stephen's thoughts.

"Laurent."

"Yes?" The boy wasn't looking at him, but seemed to be listening to the song. It could be heard even more clearly now. There were words being sung, but in a language Stephen had never heard before.

"Prepare the harpoon. We aren't returning to the ship until I get what I want."

"Captain, I-"

"Do it," he levered the gun on Laurent. "Or die. I have to say you are quite young, to be dead man." Laurent met his eyes and in them, Stephen seen the anger that lay beneath the surface. But, in front of a gun, was no place to pick a fight, Laurent stood and prepared a harpoon, roping it with jerky movements.

"Don't forget to sharpen it."

The boy grabbed a knife off the ground and started sharpening the harpoon without a word.

"Good."

They were almost around the bend of the island, the song, getting louder as they closed in, was the best sound Stephen ever could have dreamed of. He closed his eyes for a mere moment, just listening to the sweet notes. He grabbed the harpoon from the boys hands, but didn't put the pistol down.

There it was.

There she was.

"Glorious." The breathless whisper fell from his lips before he could stop it. She was beautiful. She looked like a normal woman, her body naked in the stark sunlight, skin pale with a rosy blush. Long red hair pooled down her back in thick rope. Her breasts were heavy and bare. Her sweet face was turned towards the small child in her arms. But the strangest thing about her was the long tail that was in place of her legs, it was wrapped around the rock she lounged on. It was golden, and gleamed in the sunlight. She was a mermaid. The lore was true.

"She will be mine." He couldn't stop the words as much as he could stop the previous ones. Suddenly, her voice cut off, and she looked right at him. He'd spoken too loud.

He watched as her eyes filled with fear, and he knew that she was going to bolt, but with her cumbersome child in her arms, he was faster. He heard the men yell behind him as he lifted the harpoon.

* * *

Halia heard the voice before she saw who owned it.

No.

She frantically pushed Ariel away from her into the water, forcing her daughter under the surface away from danger before diving in after her. She didn't feel anything at first, only heard the muted yells of the legged creatures in their floating device. But the water was turning red around her.

She gulped water in as she gasped and floundered to find Ariel to make sure she wasn't hurt, Ariel was at the bottom laying on the sand staring up at her in confusion, she had no idea what was going on.

No mer people were in this area, Poseidon had no idea what she had been doing, how was anyone going to find them.

Reaching and stretching, she tried to reach Ariel, but something was holding her back, she looked behind her and seen a long stick protruding from her tail. Clouds of blood were filling the water obscuring her vision and filling the water she was breathing in. She fought harder, bringing forth a scream as the pain started to settle in. She reached back and jerked on the object, only making black dots come into her vision as the pain threatened to take over. She reached to the other side of the stick only to cry out as her hand caught on the sharp point, causing more blood to fill the water.

She needed to help Ariel, she had no one here who would help her. Would she be treated the same as Poseidon's other daughters if she couldn't help her, so many fears came to the forefront as the line that was attached to the stick that impaled her, was tugged on.

She felt the pull, the pressure as she fought it. She was being pulled back to the surface.

She fought the pain, and tried to swim back to Ariel, she used the muscles of her tail to propel herself. "Ariel, go!" Halia cried out, "swim! It's not safe here!Ariel was looking around wildly, near tears, she didn't know what was going on, she attempted to swim up to her mother, but Halia pushed her away, "no you have to leave, go!She pushed her again desperate to get her to leave, but she wouldn't.

Tears were coming now, blending with the ocean water, not knowing what else to do, but praying that he heard, "Poseidon!" She screamed, hoping that the King of the Sea, her lover, and the father of her child would hear her.

Her struggling body was pulled to the surface of the water as she did everything she could to get free. She watched as her scared baby tried to reach her again as she felt hard hands grab hold of her fin and drag her from the water.

She whispered her daughters name one more time as she was pulled from her family, her home, the one thing that she had always wanted to get out of, she was pulled from the sea.

* * *

The harsh reality was sinking in about what they had just done.

Stephen stood staring at the creature, one boot on each side of it's golden tail. The pistol that he held, smoking on the end. The shot had rang out in the morning air, rendering the men's ears useless.

All the temptation to own her, to have her, to have that feeling was gone... Stephen was back to himself and so were the men.

Gibb's was the first to speak, "You didn't have to shoot her, Captain..."

Stephen plowed a hand through his hair, "you seen her!" he pointed at the mermaid, "she was trying to escape." But, still even as the blood filled their boat, he knew he was I. The wrong.

"She was harpooned, there was no where she could go..."

Stephen glanced at Laurent when he spook, "You aren't a smart boy are you? I told you about talking back to me." He leveled the gun on Laurent, all his common sense gone.

But, he was stopped. Not by Laurent or another crew member or the conscience that had obviously fled him. What stopped him was his ship in the distance. His ship that held two dozen more crew, his life and livelihood, his bounty for the king.

The sky was darkening, he could hear the thunder before he saw the lightning. His mouth dropped open as the waves grew angry. Grew dangerous. The small whale boat they were in was swept from the island, the men holding on for dear life, but standing as he was Stephen didn't have a chance. He fell head first into the turbulent ocean.

He found himself unable to surface when a hard wave swept him under. As he gulped down bitter sea water, trying to breathe, he could swear something was keeping him just below the surface. In fact, his fingers breached the surface, he just couldn't get his face above.

As Stephen started to die, he would swear on his last breath that he heard a bellow of pain echo throughout the water, right before everything he knew went black

So close to life, but closer to death, but what was to be expected when you enraged the _God of the Sea. _

**Author's note: Alright, I have some cool ideas for this story, I know this isn't a lot to form an opinion on, but I can't wait to hear from you guys. I just want to thank the people that take the time to read my writing and if you haven't already, check out my Beauty and the Beast Retelling, which I will be adding to soon (I'm sorry I'm so slow!). Anywho thank you so much and can't wait to hear from you!:)**


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